Amici:
First off, thanks to Elizabeth for granting me some soapbox space this fine day. Rather than yap about my latest novel (Rough Riders), I decided that today would be a good chance to put a shine on a few other authors (literary and crime and/or literary/crime). I’m in my third semester of an MFA program up at Southern New Hampshire University. I originally applied for the sake of hedging my employment bets as outsourcing continues to reduce my current job (word processing) to a memory.
Three semesters into the program, I couldn’t be happier with my decision and it has little to do with securing a future income. The reading list alone has been worth the investment. There are so many writers I hadn’t read or knew about for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I’d been a philistine most of my life. The introduction to so many new (for me) ones has been like receiving a weekly Christmas present. While I had read some of the reading list in the program, many I had not, and those I hadn’t read include authors like Alice Monro, Richard Bausch, Frederick Busch, Paul Bowles, George Saunders, Mario Vargas Llosa, Jay McInerney, etc. has added hours of pleasurable reading to my life.
Here are some writers I think everyone should read sooner or later in their lives.